Gang member takes life of Chicago teen

CHICAGO - The sixth-grader can barely keep from smiling, self-conscious in front of the camera as she delivers a very serious message.

CHICAGO — The sixth-grader can barely keep from smiling, self-conscious in front of the camera as she delivers a very serious message.

“Hi, my name is Hadiya. This commercial is informational for you and your future children,” she begins. “So many children out there are in gangs, and it’s your job as students to say no to gangs and yes to a great future.”

Four years after Hadiya Pendleton made that public-service video, she was killed by a gang member.After school on Tuesday, Pendleton, a sophomore at King Prep High School, had sought shelter from a rainstorm at a park with friends from the volleyball team. A gunman jumped a fence, ran toward them and opened fire, police said.

Pendleton and two teenage boys were shot. She was hit in the back and pronounced dead at Comer Children’s Hospital less than an hour later. The wounds suffered by the boys were not life-threatening.

Pendleton was shot a little more than a week after performing with her school band in Washington during President Barack Obama’s inauguration festivities. The shooting occurred a mile north of Obama’s Kenwood home.

Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy stressed that neither Pendleton nor anyone in her group was involved with gangs. It seems the gunman mistook the students for members of a rival gang.

“These were good kids,” McCarthy said on Wednesday. “ ... Wrong place at the wrong time.”

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